Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Google is the new prayer

Where do you turn in times of trouble? When you don't know what to do and you need comfort and advice? That's right, you turn to Google. A couple of years ago a basement-level geek at Google released details of a searches from a load of users onto the internet, and was promptly sacked. Not only were they incredibly intimate and revealing ("How do I get back at my cheating wife?"), they were also extremely easy to trace, since everyone Googles themselves every once in a while (don't worry, you won't go blind). The thing is that using Google is so easy, so much a part of our lives, that using has become reflexive - like an extension of the consciousness, or the will. As soon as I want something I Google it. Even things that I can't afford, or probably shouldn't want at all.

Google have discovered that it has an extra use as a kind of rapid epidemiology. When people get the flu, they Google it.

If you don't like having your searches logged you can use Cuil, in stylish black. Personally I don't mind it, like I don't mind there being ugly pictures of me on Facebook. After all, it is my ugly face.